


you were the first thing i believed in (you have my heart)

by ladyofdecember



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Adulthood, Angst, M/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 09:36:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12362880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofdecember/pseuds/ladyofdecember
Summary: Zim has been gone for a long while now with Dib sitting on Earth wondering just what happened. Takes places when they're about 20 or so years old.





	you were the first thing i believed in (you have my heart)

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt I received on Tumblr: "Bittersweet reunions". This ended up being maybe a little too angsty rather than 'bittersweet' but ah well. I took the title from the song For The Keeping from Wayward Daughter.
> 
> "You have my heart  
> Yours for the keeping  
> You are the first thing I believed in  
> And now I'm yours and you are mine tonight  
> My heart is yours  
> It's clean and healing  
> You've closed the wounds and stopped the bleeding  
> I'll give you all I am, give you my life
> 
> And I will never let you down  
> And I will never turn away  
> And I will never be alone another day  
> Cause you are everything and all I need tonight"

"What took you so long?" Zim asks as soon as he approached the clearing in the middle of the woods.

The full moon above was shining down upon them and the alien couldn't help but notice the way it glinted off the hoops in The-Dib's left ear. The irken never did understand humans' need to adorn themselves with trinkets and the like.

The raven haired man sputtered indignantly at first, unable to believe the nerve of Zim to come back here just like that and be so bold and forward with him. Finally, he heaved a deep sigh and stared down at the dirty forest floor. He almost looked... forlorn.

Zim stared at the man for a moment until his signature glare fell away, giving rise to a deeper, hidden emotion beneath. The alien's expression gave way to something... broken, as though he felt unable to keep up the facade even just a little bit.

Dib glanced back up at him, even chancing a step closer to him as he glared, giving way to his rage deep inside. "Where did you go?! Why did you just leave like that?" He began to laugh darkly and threw up his hand in the air. "I guess... I guess it doesn't matter. I guess we really aren't friends, despite what I was starting to think!"

Zim's maroon eyes drank the younger one in and with a start, Dib realized the irken hadn't bothered to don his disguise for once. True, they were pretty deep in the woods, his message to him had demanded they meet at this exact spot, but being out in the open without it still seemed odd.

"I can't go back there." The alien said then, very softly.

"What?"

"I went to meet with My Tallest, to be sure that the messages I'd been receiving were accurate."

Dib let the anger built up inside of him go as he stared at his friend. Zim had been gone nearly a year and a half and when he'd realized the alien had left he'd felt strange about the news. At first, he'd shrugged the idea off. Zim left Earth all the time right? He often visited his space station or the moon. He made short trips out into the galaxy often. No big deal.

After a month he'd found himself practically banging down Zim's door to speak to GIR to interrogate the little robot about where his master had gone. The bot knew surprisingly little and this had sort of relieved his worry. After all, if he hadn't informed GIR of any certain plans, that must mean he'd be back soon right?

Then again, the robot wasn't the most trustworthy and had most likely just forgotten any instructions he'd been told. So then Dib did what anyone else would, tried interrogating the alien's house's computer.

When he'd been literally laughed out of the base, he'd returned home, forced to await the irken's return. He was sure it wouldn't be long.

Cut to the present night and the bizarrely dramatic moment happening between them. The human cocked his head to the side in confusion. "What messages? And why would you need to go all the way back there just to discuss them?"

The irken hopped down from the log he'd been standing on, only using it for a bit of height superiority. But all at once, he'd given up on caring as he stepped closer to The-Dib. "Messages that this mission is a falsehood, there never was any mission."

Dib chuckled and scoffed a bit. After so long, it was a little silly that they were still playing this cat-and-mouse game of him trying to take over the world. He hadn't been successful, not even a little bit, and yet Dib hadn't stopped to question just why that was. The joke between him and Gaz over the years was that he was just incompetent but Dib had noticed the alien not caring so much about it anymore.

Many of their days spent together now involved petty "human" things such as disagreements with co-workers at their respective jobs or disagreements about where to go to eat for dinner. Sometimes, they fought over what to do on saturdays and other times it was just an argument over who beat who at video games. An actual discussion about taking over the world hadn't occurred in so long that the man just sort of thought he'd given up on the whole idea. Taking in the serious look on the alien's face now told otherwise.

"So what... like, there never was any mission? What are you even talking about, Zim?"

The irken moved past him, as if to exit the woods, fully exposed since he was sans any sort of disguise. He paused just short of exiting however, back to Dib as he continued. "It was a lie. My... Tallest... they... "

Dib watched as the alien squeezed his tiny fists together at his sides, feeling more than a little concerned for where this conversation was going.

He approached him to lay a hand on his shoulder but was angrily shoved back. He flinched, only a little, half expecting the alien to shoot up on his massive spider legs to provoke him. He calmed when he realized that wasn't happening.

"Zim... I'm... sorry? No wait, I'm not. I can't be sorry! You were trying to enslave my people!"

Zim rolled his eyes. "Enslavement was never in the plan."

"Really?"

"My leaders would have eradicated the entire planet of all life. It's the final step in the process."

"Oh."

An uneasy silence passed between them before Dib finally bit his lip and pressed onward. "Look, I... am sorry they lied to you. That's... not cool. But hey, maybe it's for the best? You don't have to blow us up, I don't get blown up... you know, it's win-win!"

"What?" The irken asked, clearly puzzled with the expression.

"I just mean... it seemed like for the last couple of years you've been sorta enjoying living here. Right?"

Zim glared at him in response, his ruby red eyes becoming near slits of their former selves.

"Uh... okay, I guess not?" Dib smiled uneasily before shaking it off. "Look, I'm not gonna feel bad for you that you can't destroy my planet but, you know I kinda was starting to think this was your planet too."

The irken turned away again, seeming to pace in circles. Dib worriedly looked around the small clearing and wondered what time it was now. He hoped no one else had planned on coming out here tonight to camp or whatever. But then again, he was the only type of weirdo to do something like that.

"Hey... look, why don't we go back to my house? I mean... you don't have your disguise on! What if someone comes and sees you?"

"What do you care?" Came the lethargic and bitter hiss in response which to be honest, had him taking a step back in shock.

"Wha? What do I care? Am I dreaming? Is this... is this real life? I thought before you left that we were actually friends, Zim! What? Was I wrong in thinking that?! Huh? We were, weren't we? I mean, one day here we are just doing the best we can, living each day, a step at a time and kinda happy, you know? Then all of a sudden, you're gone and I have no idea what's happened to you! You just up and leave and when I finally stop giving a damn and tell myself, you know what, just fucking forget him, bam! You showed up!"

Zim glared at him again, though it had much less malice this time. His face went slack, as did his posture as he let The-Dib's words sink in.

Finally, he quietly asked, "What is Zim supposed to do?"

Dib swallowed the lump in his throat and considered the question for a moment. He then closed the gap between them, stepping closer and grabbing the irken's left claw in his hand.

Zim looked up at him quietly, waiting for something to happen as they stood side by side, holding hands. Dib turned to lead the alien out of the woods and back to the Membrane house when he paused and suddenly dropped his hand.

Zim watched patiently as the human removed his coat and placed it around his shoulders, draping a part of it over his head to cover the antennae.

"There. Now, let's go." Dib said, gently pulling on the alien's claw again.

"Where?" Was all he asked in return.

"Home. It's late."

He waited for the irken to argue, to be stubborn and throw some sort of tantrum only to find he was being very amenable. The two headed out of the woods beneath a palest full moon either had seen in a long time. And nothing more was said of the mission the rest of the night.


End file.
